A pillar garnish is a component of a vehicle that covers a pillar of the vehicle. The pillar garnish may be mounted to the pillar with a tether clip.
An airbag may be disposed between the pillar and the pillar garnish. When the airbag is deployed in a collision, a back surface of the pillar garnish is pressed by the airbag. A clip portion of the tether clip comes off a clip mount of the pillar garnish. As a result, a displacement of the pillar garnish is allowed and thus pillar garnish does not block the deployment of the airbag. In a later stage of the deployment of the airbag, an anchor of the tether clip is hooked to the clip mount of the pillar garnish. According to the configuration, the pillar garnish is less likely to fly off the pillar.
The pillar garnish is expected not to break when pressed by the airbag. Thermoplastic elastomer olefin (TPO) that has relatively high flexibility is considered as a material of the pillar garnish. If the pillar garnish is made of TPO, the rigidity of the clip mount for holding the tether clip may decrease. When the anchor of the tether clip is hooked to the clip mount, the clip mount may be deformed and the anchor may not be properly held by the clip mount.
If the thermoplastic elastomer olefin is used for the pillar garnish, the tether clip may not be used. In this case, the pillar garnish may be fixed to the pillar with a screw instead of the tether clip. A head of the screw may be located on the surface of the pillar garnish, that is, appearance of the pillar garnish may decrease.
An object is to provide a pillar garnish that is to be mounted to a pillar of a vehicle with a tether clip and less likely to break when pressed by an airbag.